What Do the Simple Folk Do?

I think I've mentioned a couple of times before that I am not any kind of an artist.  Nor am I particularly crafty.  I don't sew, I'm not good with tools, I fight with glue and putty, and I can just barely handle a paintbrush.

So what can simple folk like myself do to get creative with model horses?

Well, I've found one thing that is "sort of" within my skill set and another thing that I'm quite keen to try.

The first thing is etching.

Now, there are some phenomenal etchies out there -- some horses with decorator patterns etched onto them and some horses etched into intricate pintos and appaloosas.

I own one pretty awesome etched appaloosa done by Judith Miller on a Montana Harvest (Justin Morgan mold).  I acquired this one secondhand because I love appies, and this one is quite a stunner.  And I know the work that goes into etching, because I've tried my hand at etching too.

An etched appaloosa.

Back in 2000, during my sole sojourn at Breyerfest, I signed up for an etching workshop led by Deb Buckler.  Participants were warned ahead of time to bring a model to etch -- I can't remember now whether we also had to bring our own X-Acto knives or if they were provided for participants' use during the workshop.

Anyway, we were each provided with a sketch of horse hair patterns and encouraged to etch these onto our model horses.  I brought along a Classic Arabian Foal from one of the Arabian Stallion and Frisky Foal sets to work on (from that weird era when Breyer was mixing different scales of horses in sets -- see also the Circus Extravaganza and Proud Mare and Newborn Foal sets).  I got a very good start on him at Breyerfest and finished him off at home.  I called him "Fetch" (for First etch).  He's not in the same class as Judith Miller's work, but the fact that he's my own work makes him precious to me.

My first (and only) attempt at etching, circa 2000.

Unfortunately, I haven't gone on to do any more etchies since.  However, etching is now something that I know I can do. And, should I need a refresher, the Breyer website features a couple of cool articles on etching for those who want to learn more about it.

The second method of customizing I found that made me think "Hey, I could do that" is the art of creating decorators by pouring different colours of acrylic paint, thinned with water and dish soap, over a model horse.  Believe it or not, I found out about this neat idea on the Breyer website kid's page.

I recently bought a horse that I believe was created by this method by fellow Canadian Twyla Wehnes.  My horse is a Stablemate G3 Rearing Andalusian stallion covered in drips and drops of green, red, blue and yellow.  I don't normally go for green horses, but this guy is cool.  I like to think of him as a hippocampus, or mer-horse, who, like the little mermaid, sold his soul to a sea-witch for a pair of hind legs.  The drippy colours are his brightly coloured scales melting away as he transforms into an earth-horse shape.

A hippocampus in the process of transformation?

I haven't tried doing one of these "pour ponies" (as Twyla calls them) myself, but it's on my to-do list for the next time I get feeling a little creative.  I just might invest in some of those Breyer Paint and Play unicorns and see what kind of fantasy creatures I can come up with.  Maybe I'll even pour acrylics over one and then etch out a spotted pattern on it, combining the two finishes I feel like I might just be able to achieve.


Who knows? With techniques this simple maybe even someone like me can create a mini work of art.